MEDIA DECODER; Fox Business Makes Over Its Schedule In Prime Time

By BRIAN STELTER

Published: February 10, 2012

In place of the political talk shows that are currently shown from 8 to 11 p.m., Fox Business will replay its programming shown from 5 to 8 p.m., giving more exposure to three of its best-known anchors.

The changes called attention to the poor ratings performance of Fox Business, a four- and a half-year-old spinoff of the hugely popular Fox News Channel. Both channels are owned by News Corporation.

Last year the channel had an average of 54,000 total viewers in prime time, placing it in the bottom tier of all cable channels rated by Nielsen. The leading business news channel, CNBC, had an average of 228,000 viewers in prime time.

For the last year or so, Fox Business has been showing ''Freedom Watch,'' with Andrew Napolitano at 8 p.m.; ''Power & Money,'' a business and politics show with David Asman at 9; and ''Follow the Money'' at 10, with Eric Bolling, one of Fox's staunchest critics of President Obama.

All three will remain contributors. Mr. Asman will remain a co-anchor of ''After the Bell,'' the 4 p.m. hourlong show on Fox Business, and Mr. Bolling will remain a co-host of ''The Five,'' the 5 p.m. hourlong show on Fox News.

Once the changes announced on Thursday take effect on Feb. 20, the shows featuring Gerri Willis, Neil Cavuto and Lou Dobbs at 5, 6 and 7 p.m. will be queued up again starting at 8. While those three programs have a high concentration of Republican politicians and conservative commentators as guests, they are not as overtly political as the shows they are replacing.

In a statement, Kevin Magee, the executive vice president for Fox Business, said, ''Neil Cavuto, Lou Dobbs and Gerri Willis are the most trusted names in business news, and this new lineup affords Fox Business viewers additional access to their no-nonsense take on the day's financial events.''

Fox executives appear to be pleased with the relative ratings performance of the shows featuring Mr. Cavuto and Mr. Dobbs.

This year to date, Mr. Dobbs has had the most-watched hour between 5 and 11 p.m., with 109,000 viewers on an average night. Mr. Cavuto had the No. 2 hour, with 70,000 viewers. No Fox Business show between 5 and 11 p.m. has had more than 25,000 viewers on average in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic that cable news advertisers hope to reach on a average night, according to Nielsen.

Fox also said on Thursday that the anchor it had recently hired from CNBC, Melissa Francis, would take over the 5 p.m. time slot in the spring. When that happens, the 5 p.m. show by Ms. Willis will shift to 8 p.m.

Prime time has historically been a puzzle for business networks. Separately on Thursday, CNBC said it had hired an executive from VH1 to develop new formats for its prime-time hours.

This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print.